258 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



by sharp eyes, and the great majority of birds' eggs are gath- 

 ered in. Probably Avith ninety-nine boys out of a hundred 

 these egg collections are soon forgotten, while the hundredth 

 boy is too likely to become a mere collector who strives to see 

 how many varieties of eggs he can get together without refer- 

 ence to their natural history values. To this class of collec- 

 tors we owe the existence of the egg-dealers w^ho collect eggs 

 in large numbers to sell. The latter are the mercenary collec- 

 tors, while the intermittent types are the aimless ones, — a 

 classification suggested by Col. W. H. M. Duthie, a Scottish 

 ornithologist, Avho well defines the "true collector" as "a nat- 

 uralist acquainting himself with birds, their habits, flight, 

 migration, and breeding haunts ; his egg-collecting being only 

 one of the means of acquiring knowledge.'" 



Birds' eggs are sometimes collected by children to serve as 

 Easter gifts the following season, — a sacrilege to which atten- 

 tion need scarcely be called to reveal its inappropriateness. 

 Such an Easter present is a sacrifice of innocence rather than 

 a thank-offering. 



Unfortunately, the boy of the period does not limit his 

 destructive powers to the gathering of eggs. The recent 

 increase in cheap fire-arms has placed within his reach the 

 means of killing feathered " game" at all seasons of the year. 

 To this fact is due much of the diminution in the number of 

 small birds in the vicinity of towns and cities. Dr. R. W. 

 Shufeldt thinks that the wholesale destruction carried on by 

 the army of unscrupulous small boys " is a reason for bird 

 decrease before which other reasons stand aghast." He 

 reports meeting near Washington, D. C, " one such youngster, 

 and upon examining his game-bag, found it absolutely full of 

 dead bodies of birds which he had killed since starting out in 

 the morning. One item alone consisted of seventy-two ruby 

 and golden-crowned kinglets. The fellow boasted of having 

 slain over one hundred cat-birds that season." 



That the small boy is recognized in other countries as a 



